This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Canadian police forces rap battle to encourage safe driving

The art of policing isn’t just packing heat and cruising streets. It’s about counting syllables in MC Hammer songs, and straining the brain to rhyme “slow down” with “driving like a clown.”

At least that was the sentiment behind a snowballing social media trend this week, that started at the RCMP detachment in sleepy little Kindersley, Sask. and spurred cops in Vancouver, Edmonton and beyond to pen their own rap songs about safe winter driving.

Meghan Mochoruk, the detachment service assistant who runs social media for the RCMP in Kindersley, told the Star she was struck with the idea last July. Her muse came in the form of Vanilla Ice’s lingeringly popular 1990 hit “Ice Ice Baby,” which sprang through the radio as she drove across town.

“We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to reach out to the public and get them to read the safety messages that we send out,” said Mochoruk, 27. “I was like, I can do something with this.”

She came up with a stanza of lyrics to match the song, then waited until the first big blizzard of the season to tweet it out with the RCMP detachment’s Twitter handle. The snow flew earlier this week, and she released her ode to safe driving.

Article Continued Below

“Alright stop! Collaborate and listen, snow is back and these roads are glistenin’, the snow grabs a hold of me tightly, slippery like a skating rink daily and nightly,” Mochoruk wrote.

The RCMP's Meghan Mochoruk, 27, was inspired to pen a road safety rap song when "Ice Ice Baby" came on the radio. The move spurred a slew of copycat lyricism from several other police forces. (Meghan Mochoruk)

“To the extreme, I rock winter tires like a toboggan. Put your seatbelt on so you don’t hit your noggin.”

Other police forces quickly followed suit with verses of their own. Passions were evidently astir.

From Edmonton Police, to the tune of “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” by Will Smith: “Driving’s a privilege and I gotta do it politely.” Cops in Calgary pitched in, too, employing the metre of Sir Mixalot’s “Baby got back,” while the RCMP in Prince George, B.C. dropped a hot track that they actually recorded and released online, inspired by RUN-DMC’s “It’s Tricky.” They called it “Run RCMP.”

Choice lyrics included: “We’ve had this little flurry, the roads are kind of blurry, slid down the street and skidded out, don’t make your mother worry.”

Ridiculousness aside, Mochoruk said she was proud to see her initiative get picked up by other police departments around the country. “There is a safety message behind the rap,” she said. “To have our message around the world…it’s pretty amazing.”

So is this the beginning of an illustrious rap career? Will we next hear from Mochoruk as she charts on Billboard and globe-trots in a G6?

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com